1. Field of the Technology
The present disclosure relates to a method, system and computer program product for configuring printing and copying systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method, system and computer program product for performing N-Up printing (also known as “multiple-up printing”).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Graphical User Interfaces (“GUIs”) are used to display and configure parameter values for document processing, such as “N-up printing.” N-up printing involves printing more than one image on a page. This may include: 1) printing an image at a specific size, and fitting as many copies of this image on a page as possible; 2) printing an image at a specific reduction/enlargement value (e.g., 50%) and fitting as many copies of the image on the page as possible; or 3) printing a specific number of images on each page while keeping the resulting image as large as possible.
Typically, a GUI only provides controls to perform one of these types of N-up printing. The selection of a value for the control will cause the system to automatically perform the calculations necessary to perform the type of N-Up printing that the control is provided to support in accordance with the selected value. For example, the selection of a size value for the image size control will result in the system automatically calculating the number of images that can fit on each page at the selected size value. Likewise, the selection of a value for the Number up control (specifying the number of images per page) will result in the system automatically calculating the maximum image size to provide the selected value of images on each page.
When controls for a type of N-up printing are not provided, the user must manually perform the mathematical calculations to perform the N-Up printing. For example, a user has an original image and needs to reduce the final image to a specific size, printing images 2 per page, but a control for the final image size is not provided in the GUI. So, the user must compute the reduction percentage by manually by dividing the final image size by the original image size and then the user must enter this computed reduction percentage in the GUI in order to obtain the desired output. Alternatively, the user can employ trial and error to obtain the desired output. In addition, the available GUIs for N-up printing often fail to provide the user with adequate feedback related to the output that will result based on the mathematical calculation. As a result, a substantial amount of time and resources are wasted because of the trail an error that must be preformed to obtain the desired output from the performance of N-up printing.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method, system and computer program product for performing N-up printing. There is a need for the method, system and computer program product to support each of the different types of N-up printing within a single system. There is a need for the method, system and computer program product to perform the necessary calculations to perform each type of N-up printing. There is a need for the method, system and computer program product to provide feedback.